It's Grilling Season - Marinade / Rub Recommendations

Adolf’s is also pretty good for steak.

That actually sounds pretty good. Would’ve never thought to mix it with honey. I’ll have to try it out.

I debated on it, but ended up with another gas grill. Way more convenient. Next grill I purchase will be a combo grill most likely.

Agreed. Love it on grilled veggies even.

That’s lame you can only get it in bulk, apparently local grocery stores don’t carry it.

Yes, I too was blown away about how easy and fast it made getting the charcoal going, plus you don’t get that shitty lighter fluid taste. I have the same one as you, it was like 15 bucks at home depot or whatever but is totally worth it.

I’m usually in a hurry so all my steak gets is patted dry with a paper towel, rubbed with olive oil, then doused with garlic salt. Get the grill or frying pan good and hot before you throw it on or you won’t sear it properly.

Chicken breasts either marinaded in something tangy, or basted with BBQ sauce over medium-high heat to carmelize the sauce.

Don’t forget to throw some red pepper slices or asparagus on there for garnishing your meat.

I’ve been using a variation of this rub for pork shoulders so far this year, I’m looking forward to trying it on some ribs.

Just kosher salt and fresh black pepper for steaks, brush on a little melted butter then let it rest.

Chivetta’s and hickory smoking chips for chicken.

Sweet Baby Rays Hickory and brown sugar has been the go to sauce for the last couple of years.

Every once in a while I make a batch of cherry cola glazefor ribs.

We’ve been making bison burgers a lot so far this year. They have 1lb packs of bison meat at wegmans.

I hate Chivetta so much. Growing up outside WNY thing I think. IMHO, one of the worst things you can do to chicken.

For steaks it’s all about quality of the meat. If you have sourced good meat, I wouldn’t do much more than letting them sit out with a brush of oil, a little kosher salt and cracked pepper until room temp. Although I do have some blackberry chipotle sauce that looks like it would be pretty fantastic, I’ll probably wait and use that with some chicken or something.

For meat (especially pork) heading to the smoker - i’ve been doing rubs heavy on the Ancho, Coffee, with some brown sugar, paprika, and a little bit of dry mustard, salt, black pepper, oregano and coriander. A little ginger and cayenne is nice in this too.

For chicken, do yourself a favor and head out to Wendels Chicken Farm on Rt 240. This stuff is some of the best chicken you will ever taste, and is free of hormones, antibiotics, etc. Not to mention it is much cheaper than organic chicken you will find elsewhere. Cook breasts to no more than 165 degrees (I usually pull them off at 160). Any hotter and you literally push all of the liquid out of the muscle fibers and that’s when breasts get tough and not so good. A little salt and pepper is usually all these need, but Wendels marinade (they call it BBQ) is really good too.

I switched to Charcoal this year and love it. I have a Weber Performer with the Propane start assist and it’s just as easy as cooking on a gas grill. Highly Recommended :tup:

---------- Post added at 10:46 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:43 AM ----------

One more thing - If you do any sort of smoking or indirect heat grilling, buy yourself one of these:

Maverick Remote ET-732 Dual Probe Smoker Thermometer

The New Maverick Remote ET-732 Smoker Thermometer is the second generation model of the very popular ET-73. The ET-732 Barbecue Thermometer Set has a range of up to 300 ft and can withstand temperatures of up to 716 degrees! Another great new feature is an alert on the receiver that lets you know if you are out of range.

http://www.yardandpool.com/Maverick-ET-732-Remote-Smoker-Thermometer-p/et-732.htm

http://www.yardandpool.com/v/vspfiles/photos/ET-732-2.jpg

Ahh thank you for the thermometer linky

I have already destroyed 2 probe cables while smoking

FYI, if you put salt on any meat, steak specifically - either put that fucker on the grill immediately, or wait at least 45 minutes.

2nd on the thermometer recommendation. Just what I was looking for.

Yep. It’s only like 10 bucks or son though. Maybe 15 now because groceries have skyrocketed. But you get a gallon so buy one and then invite everybody over for some siqqq BBQ!

What’s the reasoning behind that?

Salt contacting the surface of meat will begin drawing out the liquids from the meat fibers. This is known as osmosis I believe. If you are salting, I would suggest less than 5 minutes from salt to grill.

As the liquids come out, it :

  1. Dries your meat out.
  2. The beads of liquid form on the surface and begin to dissolve the salt. You lose flavor both ways, less salt, less beef “liquid”.
  3. The liquid on the surface lowers the temperature of the pan / grill and messes up your searing / browning.

So why wait if the salt is sucking out all the juice from your delicious steak?

The liquid dissolves the salt, turning it into a brine. The brine in turn breaks down the muscle structure of the beef, making it much more absorptive. Now the beef re-sucks in all that brine. You’ll probably still lose some moistness in the meat, but it won’t be noticeable. Cooking any meat will result in loosing about a quarter of the moisture anyway, unless you char the crap out of it (read as, order it medium and above).

In a way - I’m saying the longer you wait, the better it is. There’s a limit though, I wouldn’t go longer than 12 hours max. Of course, this is all personal preference. I’ve also had a lot of steak to work with through my life - my dad is a head salesman at one of the larger meat distribution centers in NYC.

Salt + Meat + Time = Jerky.

Bump.

Who here uses lump charcoal? Not briquettes, straight up lump charcoal. What brand do you use and where do you get it?

Oh man. I need to get some sort of meat with bone handles and fire up the charcoal grill. Half chickens or ribs or something.

Maybe even get out the smoker for a couple of chickens or a slab of salmon or something. Mmm…

I’m thinking about doing the same tonight. Probably some sort of chicken. I usually go with a marinade but I think I’m feeling BBQ today.

What do you use in your smoker?

I’ll be using this all next week while up in the ADKS. Jealous?

surprised nobody said Italian dressing.
Cheap lazy and easy method for marinading low quality steaks.
lol.

chicken too*

And salmon.